“After all, She Was Good” Part 2

Ava felt a sense of urgency, seeking advice from her best friend, Esther, who had faced a lot of displeasure concerning black love and relationships. For her, anything that has to do with black love trauma’s her past. For Ava, she still has faith that black love exists.
After a thorough phone conversation, she wakes up from her bed and walks to the window. Looking up the skies, she notices a tree with its branches in the shape of love; she smiles, knowing that after all, she was love and always been.
With a soothing salt bath and meditation music on, salt lamps glistering her bathroom, she sinks into deep meditation, manifesting positive vibes, likeness, and peace.
Ava smiles as she reads her horoscope while oiling her body, feeling more powerful more than ever. She moved on, but one thing that kept her silent and optimistic was the pain. Ava had become used to the pain, knowing that was her destruction to self-identification. The phone rings, but she ignores it.
Ava prays for one thing that someday, she would look back and laugh at those memories she thought were most profound. Whenever Eva hears her phone ring, she prays it was Chris but to no avail. Chris moved on before the relationship even started, and even though they were still friends on Facebook, Ava decided that it was time to cut off all loose ends. Ava finally ends the existing trauma, becoming more aware that she was still good and black is still black, and black loves her back.
Ava concluded that most African American men, from her experience, have an embedded past condoned by a system that defines love as subjects to sex and fantasies.
Ava, for her first time in lots of times, had realized that she couldn’t be for those who couldn’t see past trauma and grow from it. She believes that to overcome one’s past, you will have to use that experience to enrich lives, not tear down.
For Ava, trauma is her comeback story, stronghold, and not her future, for one cannot grow with trauma. You have to heal from it and eventually make that experience worth having you.
Ava then retrieves to her dance studio, playing her favorite song by Sade, “no ordinary love,” wearing her ballet shoes, and danced until she couldn’t feel pain in her legs anymore. Right then, she knew that pain was just temporary, and loving herself is the most significant permanent entity she had ever endured. Her favorite quote by Ruby Karyo, “Love is dance, and dance can heal love,” became her source of strength to carry on.

THE END

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6 Comments

  1. Excellent piece Ruby. Part 2 placed me in the mind of the character and able to feel her thought process. I also love how the character quoted you at the end. And it has to do with dancing! Keep up the beautiful writing <3

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